Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City by Janet Schulman

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Ellen Fader, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR -- School Library Journal, 1/16/2008

From SLJ January 2008

SCHULMAN, Janet. Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City. illus. by Meilo So. unpaged. CIP. Knopf/Borzoi. Mar. 2008. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-375-84558-1; PLB $19.99. ISBN 978-0-375-94558-8. LC 2007014661.

Gr 3-6–Compared to Meghan McCarthy’s City Hawk: The Story of Pale Male (S & S) and Jeanette Winter’s The Tale of Pale Male: A True Story (Harcourt, both 2007), this book about the first red-tailed hawk to take up residence in New York City’s Central Park since its construction in 1857 is more suitable for older readers. Schulman supplies many details missing from the earlier versions, resulting in a more accurate and leisurely story. For example, children who rightly were puzzled about how apartment-building owners were able to destroy and remove Pale Male’s nest will learn that they took advantage of newly relaxed rules under the Migratory Bird Treaty. So’s illustrations play up the conflict between the upscale building’s residents, annoyed with the mess of nesting birds and their garbage, and the growing number of New Yorkers who rallied to force them to allow the birds to nest again. The artist’s evocative watercolor and colored pencil pictures perfectly capture the power and grace of the majestic raptors. From the eye-catching endpapers, showing exactly what birders see when they spot a red-tailed hawk in the sky, to the energetic city scenes, readers experience New Yorkers’ excitement about Pale Male and his various mates and their offspring and understand why his story has captured the interest of so many people.